{"id":18665,"date":"2020-02-13T13:42:41","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T13:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/?p=18665"},"modified":"2020-02-18T08:40:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T08:40:12","slug":"the-history-legend-and-representations-of-saint-eulalia-in-the-collections-of-the-museu-nacional-dart-de-catalunya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/en\/the-history-legend-and-representations-of-saint-eulalia-in-the-collections-of-the-museu-nacional-dart-de-catalunya\/","title":{"rendered":"The history, legend and representations of Saint Eul\u00e0lia in the collections of the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Milena Pi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Santa<\/a>
Detail of Saint Eul\u00e0lia, The Virgin of the \u201cConsellers\u201d<\/a><\/em>, Llu\u00eds Dalmau, 1443-1445<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Historical and legendary events are interwoven\nin the figure of Saint Eul\u00e0lia, whose saint\u2019s day we are celebrating this week.\nWe thought this would be a good opportunity to take a closer look at the\nhistorical sources, the origins of her cult, and the symbolism that this relic has\nfor Barcelona and the later institutional development of the Catalan Counties.\nSaint Eul\u00e0lia, martyr and benefactor, is also present in the collections of the\nMuseu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya. The article ends with a small selection of\nworks and a review of the iconography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search for relics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the late ninth century, Bishop Frodoinus<\/a> of Barcelona proposed\nto search for the relics of Saint Eul\u00e0lia, who had died on the cross five centuries\nearlier. Barcelona was then in the archdiocese of Narbonne and Archbishop Sigebod\nwas looking for them so that he could have a new church built there, dedicated\nto her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As was usual in those days, following the directions of prior rituals, prayers and fasting, Bishop Frodoinus and his clerics \u00abmiraculously\u00bb found her remains buried near a church dedicated to Saint Mary. This church must have been the present-day Santa Maria del Mar<\/strong> (previously Santa Maria de les Arenes<\/a>) as it was a Roman tradition to bury the dead along the sides of the roads leading out of the city, namely, outside the walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why was this search undertaken? Frodoinus\nhad been appointed bishop by the Frankish king Charles the Bald<\/a>, from\nwhom he had also received a large piece of land on the eastern slopes of Montseny\nand the complex commission of managing the administrative organization of the\nCatalan Counties, particularly those of Barcelona and Girona.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Marca<\/a>
Catalan counties and other territories at the beginning of the 9th century<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The political and religious moment was a delicate one, the kingdom of the Franks was defending the Hispanic March from the threat of the Muslims, and part of the pre-eminent orders of local society, who were suspicious, remained loyal to Hispano-Gothic ideas and liturgy<\/strong>. The Visigothic clergy, however, had taken the treasures and the relics and did not want to become part of the new ecclesiastical authority of the Carolingian empire. To strengthen Frankish authority and control in the region, King Charles the Bald endowed the bishoprics with riches, as they were the most representative political and administrative structure in a territory lacking efficient county government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles the Bald died, however, in 877, and that same year Wilfred, count of Cerdanya and Urgell, was appointed as count of Barcelona and Girona. For the first time the counties were not administered by a Frankish functionary, and a line of native governors thus began<\/strong>. Barcelona, Girona, Urgell, and shortly afterwards Vic, would be ruled by Count Wilfred the Hairy<\/a> (Guifr\u00e9 el Pel\u00f3s).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To give this new project legitimacy it was necessary to merge native tradition with the Frankish legacy, the Church and the liturgy of Rome. Frodoinus found himself needing to spread his ecclesiastic, political and personal prestige, and that brings to the beginning of this story: the \u00a0\u00abdiscovery\u00bb (or\u00a0\u00abinvention\u00bb) of the body of a local saint, already venerated by the Visigothic Church and who implied a continuation of worship, while at the same time it strengthened the ties with the Church of Rome \u2013<\/strong> a union of the past and the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Sigebod<\/a> gave up his\nsearch and returned to Narbonne empty-handed, Frodoinus explored the area near\nSanta Maria del Mar. When the relic was found, it was translated in a solemn\nprocession to the cathedral in Barcelona. The body was laid in a marble tomb\nand placed below the cathedral altar. If the saint had been found by someone\nwith the metropolitan prestige of Frodoinus and remained in the city of her\nbirth, her cult would extol the ecclesiastical order inherited from the Franks,\nand it would consolidate the new institutional system with its capital Barcelona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Joan-F Cabestany i Fort says, \u00abWe must link the \u2018invention\u2019 of the body of Saint Eul\u00e0lia to a series of events that originated at that time and which structured the rule of Count Wilfred I and his immediate successors until the middle of the tenth century.\u00bb<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that\u2019s the history, now for the\nlegend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n